Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Week 23: Treat Meat as a Flavoring or Special Occasion Food

I can do this.  Today is Tuesday, day 2 of week 23. Yesterday the only protein/meat bi-product I ate was eggs. One container of Trader Joe's egg white salad over raw broccoli, eda mame and a giant pile of arugula for brunch.  A giant bowl of ramen with veggies and a poached egg for dinner (hondashi broth which is fish based).

Pollan notes in this chapter that, "vegetarians are healthier than carnivores". I think this statement is ridiculous. I don't know anyone who is a carnivore. Even my meat loving German Shepherds are not carnivores. As a matter of fact, almost all vertebrates are omnivores. Pollan's statement is silly.  Because we are omnivores the statement cannot hold true in any way. Of course humans who are true carnivores would be less healthy than a vegetarian, because even a vegetarian would come closer to the diversified diet that our bodies have evolved to be suited for.  The counterpart cannot hold true, certainly, for our carnivorous vertebrate cousins the lion, the tiger and the bear. Surely these carnivores are not less healthy than their bohemian radical pinko friends who abstain from the hunt?

At any rate, Pollan strongly advocates for an omnivorous diet in which meat is simply an accessory to the meal, and to a lifetime of meals.  He calls this type of vorism flexitarianism.  OK. This we can do despite the silliness of his semantics.  For dinner tonight (after eating the leftover ramen, no egg, for lunch) I am going to steam the broccoli in the fridge, toss it with garlic in hot olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. I can go an entire week without meat as a main course. Not a problem. I will let you know later in the week how I fare. If you are listening.  A fallow blog gathers lots of moss but very little readership.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Leafy Lunches

Thinking about food and food victimization all day yesterday after my post stating that lunch was, "on upper management", implying I was dietarily victimized by what someone else chose for my lunch. I have a car. The offices in which my cubicle is located lies equidistant between a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods.  Instead of hormonally hoovering two pieces of pizza and a Caesar salad (as chosen by aforementioned management), I hopped in my hoopty and headed for TJ's.

Lunches the rest of this week:

  • One container Egg White Salad (xantham gum, created as a by-product during the fermentation of sucrose and glucose, is used to help maintain emulsification, in other words to keep oil from separating from the rest of a mixture).
  • Large pile of arugula leaves.
  • 3/4 cup raw broccoli.
  • 2 tablespoons eggplant hummus.
  • Galeo's Miso Caesar dressing (literally nothing unrecognizable on the label).
This week will be an empowered week of leafy salads with lean egg white protein and lots of fiber. FTW.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Week 22: Eat Plants, Mostly Leaves

Last week I started off a day late and a dollar short after a long overly fun weekend in Lake Havasu City (spending literally no time in White Trash lake).  So, I am on the train again.  For a very early breakfast I ate a couple handfuls of fresh Rainier cherries and later Chobani Greek Yogurt.  For lunch, half a chicken sandwich and a large green salad. (Hormones are dictating that I inhale anything and everything within hoovering distance, so this felt like self control. And lunch was on upper management, so I did the best I could with what I had.)

I have prepped nicely for the next few days.  Tonight, we are grilling small cuts of beef marinated overnight bulgogi style. With the small cuts of meat (maybe 4 ounces per person after grilling), grilled corn on the cob salad with pasilla peppers tossed with lots of organic arugula (leaves).

Tomorrow: pork loin chile verde cooked in the crock pot with broccoli, squirted with lots of lemon juice from my prolific giant sized lemon producing tree. This recipe cooks a lot of pork loin, and most likely I will freeze some in small portions for lunches. BTW, I consider broccoli leaves. The leaves and the entire tree, as a matter of fact.

Wednesday:  Cooking spicy Italian turkey sausage in tomato sauce has become a habit. Something so easy my husband can do it quickly and deliciously hopefully encouraging him to do more cooking in the future. I have served this in the past over cous cous, polenta, etc.  Wednesday I plan to serve it over strands of spaghetti squash.

I haven't planned for the rest of the week, and this does seem kind of like a hard one.  A lot of advance planning needs to happen so I don't end up eating the exact same lunch I ate today the rest of the week. I am thinking of bringing salads with some lean protein and a bottle of my favorite dressing (Galeo's Miso Ceasar), because that's more tempting than any delivery option.